


The Order of Affairs

by empathy_junkie



Series: The Company Expanded [1]
Category: Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: I love my boys, Last words, Other, Sadness, Suicide mention, The Yotsuba Group, death mention, they're all going to fucking die, unrequited romantic feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-19
Updated: 2017-11-19
Packaged: 2019-02-04 07:15:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12765864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/empathy_junkie/pseuds/empathy_junkie
Summary: for tumblr; set in the anime-only timeline that suggests that each member of the Yotsuba Group who attended the Meetings of Death was killed one by one and in various ways





	The Order of Affairs

“This is Namikawa.”

A bead of spit launched itself through the air as the first consonant landed. “It’s Shimura. It’s urgent. A-Are you alone? Somewhere we can talk unobserved?”

“Shimura," the voice spoke with evident pleasure and was yet removed, foreboding. _He knows._ "This is certainly unexpected. Though, if you wish to speak in complete privacy, a phone-call is hardly opportune. I can arrange to -"

"I'm sorry, but it can't wait."

A pause. "Very well. You have my full attention.”

Shimura wet his lips. For all the times he had run over his intended message before picking up the phone, he hadn't accounted for the weight of their _finality -_ their damnable, undeniable _solidness._ And yet he managed. “Y-you've heard, I assume?"

There was a soft hum of breath on the other end of the line even as Shimura held his own in dire anticipation. It was a familiar sound. In fact, the harried man could almost see the other closing his eyes in that defensive gesture of his, so often utilized as if to ward off the ill-wishes of those around him if not the gods who forced him into their company. For all the good it had done him. For all the good it could do him now. He spoke suddenly.

“That Kira has returned?" A break without tension. "Of course. It’s a momentous occasion, on the lips of everyone I've come into contact with for the past several hours. In fact, the reception is generally positive, from what I've observed." Namikawa had risen from his chair. Its wheels let out a faint grumble. “Is that all you wanted to discuss? It may be a surprise, but it hardly warrants secrecy -”

“No, there's something else - s-something more, I mean.” He was being patient. Very patient. But it was almost more than he could bear. Namikawa's voice reached him through the buzz and crackle of his own blood in his ears, and it was clearly the voice of one _confused_.  

“... And that is?”

“Mido’s dead.” _There. There it is. I know you understand. You don't need me to go on. You don't need me to say anything else. Please don't make me say anything else._ Yet there was no response. So Shimura wet his lips again and forced himself onward, faint and clipped as if he were speaking through lungs heavy with rubble. “It's just been confirmed. His body was discovered late last night in a side-alley just three blocks from here. H-his neck was broken. They think he … j-jumped from one of the surrounding buildings.”

“Suicide."

Shimura had never heard that particular noun uttered with such hope and good-will. But the voice of Namikawa immediately shifted once it was said - expertly, seamlessly, and not to the desired effect in the least. "Shimura, I commiserate. This is terrible news.”

 _Enough of this. You know what I'm after. You know the truth!_ “... Right. Right, then. Y-you want me to say it outright? I have no objection!”

“And I suppose, in addition, you're prepared to explain how this new Kira could possibly have discovered our identities, let alone why he would consider any of us a threat after all this time.”

Silence. There was no answer, only an assumption. Only a possibility. A possibility that the six of them had months to live; weeks; days.

“Yotsuba is no longer affiliated with Kira. Anyone presuming to fill Kira's role must understand this. And you forget that those individuals thought to be directly working with Kira were never disclosed to the public, let alone to the rest of the company employees. The only way this new Kira would take an interest in Yotsuba is if he bore a connection to his predecessor, and you can't possibly suspect that he was capable of such forethought.”

Shimura did not. There was no cause for Higuchi to act in such a manner. It was only speculation. 

“Besides, you forget. I've known Mido far longer than you have, and while this information is disheartening, it simply doesn't indicate foul play. He was a friend of mine. It's bad news. But you have no proof of its being anything more, and I would advise you to take it as an unrelated incident."

The defense was finished. It awaited a response. And after a few moments, it was rewarded with the object of its desire in a low, somber tone.

"You know, once I wished I _shared_ your optimism.”

Namikawa understood. Immediately, his indignation was palpable to the other, even from so far away. Though, they had always been in two, separate worlds, and Shimura had never found comprehending him to be a problem. He spoke at length in a clipped tone, but Shimura was not prepared to allow him his previous amount of freedom. He had had enough.

"As I said, what you're indicating is the worst case scenario, not the one that is most likely -”

“Namikawa, I hope you can forgive me. ... I-I should have acted sooner. At the start of everything. I ... I was prepared to risk my life, then. Really, I was. I-I know it sounds ridiculous with the kind of m-man I am, but ... after Hatori-"

"Thank you for alerting me to what happened to Mido. He was a friend of mine. I'm grateful -" 

"Please let me -"

"But, if you have nothing further to discuss with me, I have pressing obligations to return to."

"- _please let me apologize_. I might not have t-time to let anyone else know ... t-to explain it to them."

A final spell of silence. Shimura found that his head was bowed in anguish. But Namikawa's next words were so strange to him that they acted to draw him out of his revere. 

Softly, curiously, Namikawa addressed him more directly than he had ever attempted before, "... And you began by calling me?" 

All at once, the two of them were oddly embarrassed. 

_He has a point. Why did I call him first? Is this because you were there, with Mido and myself? But I didn't even want you there. I knew you wouldn't take our efforts seriously. I wanted to know what L had said. If that even was L. It was. I knew he was onto us. I tried to tell them. I tried to tell you. You wouldn't listen. And yet ..._

"G-goodbye, Namikawa." 

_I think you would have listened, if I had been speaking of other things._

"Is that -" but Shimura was lowering the phone from his ear, finding himself breathing heavily and gazing, disoriented, into the wall across from him. Through the wall. Out into the world where the sun glanced off the corners of buildings and fought with the tempestuous thunderheads for supremacy. What had he, there?

He took an uneasy step forward. Hatori had had a family. Hatori had had two, young children. Kida had a wife. Takahashi had a family. What had he ever had? 

_What had he ever had? What was it Kira was truly going to take away?_


End file.
